Not every sound effect has a perfect name. And, in the case of legacy DVD or CD libraries, they may have barely any name at all.

It’s easy to correct a single name, or even a dozen. What happens whey you find yourself working with a collection of thousands of unnamed files? No one has time to fix a horde of mysterious files one at a time.

So, today I’ll finish off the second “Metadata Month” by showing how you can do this more quickly using batch renaming.

Many metadata apps can rename sound libraries. However, the apps can be expensive. Batch renaming does this simply, free of charge or inexpensively, often using just the apps included with your OS.

It’s not hard. You don’t need to be a power user. However, it is a bit more involved, and does require concentration. Set aside some time, grab yourself a coffee, and settle in. I’ll guide you through the process.

Please note: I am very detailed. This post should take about 12 minutes to read. Click the button below to email the article to yourself to read later.

The website launch gave me some insight into independent sound library collections. I’ll share those thoughts in this “post-mortem” post, and also include a few resources for fans of indie sound bundles and also for sound library publishers, too.

My hope for those pages was to spread field recording knowledge and share all the excellent sound libraries you’ve created. I believe that all of our work improves when more audio knowledge and better sound surrounds us. I had hoped to contribute a small resource that would give back to the field recording community I’ve enjoyed being a part of.

Many of you wrote to tell me you found those pages useful. So, inspired by that, I’ve released a small, new tool which I also hope will help the sound design and field recording communities: Sound Effects Search.

This is exactly how the Free Firearm Library began. Of course, many of you know this library. It has received a lot of press and support from the community. The library has been downloaded by many sound pros. The crew behind the library, Still North SoundFX, recently mentioned that library clips were used in Boardwalk Empire.

The library also offers something more than tricky sound clips, however. The reason why it was created and how it was done provides insight for audio pros interested in sharing sound themselves. How?

Well, we’re all familiar with the sound of Hollywood-style suppressed gunshots. Ben Jaszczak and Brian Nelson of Still North SoundFX knew silencers sounded differently. They were determined to capture realistic-sounding suppressed gunshots. To do this, they turned to the community to support the project with what became a popular Kickstarter campaign.

So, what’s interesting is that the library grew from a need to record a specific sound effect that was difficult to capture: suppressed gunshots. Also, the Firearm Library involved the community intimately by using a tool rarely seen when creating new collections: Kickstarter.com.

It’s been some time since the library was released. I recently reached out to Jaszczak and Nelson to hear their reflections on these ideas. They kindly shared their time answering questions about recording the gun library, working with the community, and their plans for the future.

A brief update: I recently added about a dozen new sound clip Web shops to the Community Sound FX Libraries page. It’s a bit more presentable, too.

I revisited the sites while updating the list. It’s a good way to discover what’s out there. As I did so, I noticed that there’s a few perhaps less-well-known sites that have some incredible libraries. There are some real gems buried in there. In particular, there’s a wide selection of guns and cars. There are also new nature recordists with some truly evocative recordings.

It’s also interesting to note that the count is now at 66 independent sound library stores. That’s pretty incredible. Two years ago half of these didn’t exist.

I believe the list is pretty much up to date. Thanks to everyone who has submitted a website. If I have missed your independent Web shop, please contact me via the sound fx library submission page.

You’ve conjured inspiring audio in the studio and in the streets. You’ve mixed and mastered the tracks. You’ve gathered your best selections into an impressive sound library. Now it’s time to share your sound effects and music with your peers and fans. But how do you do this?

The last article described how to create an indie sound effects bundle. Today’s post explains how to share your new sound library from your own online Web shop.

Have no idea what a Web shop is? Don’t have the slightest clue how to begin sharing a sound library? Don’t worry. This post will introduce you to Web shops, explain how they work, and share five types you can choose from.

This post is an abridged chapter from my recently released book called Sharing Sound Online. It’s about building a bulletproof sound bundle and sharing it from your own Web shop.

I’ve often written here that I believe that the entire craft of pro audio improves as more exceptional sound libraries surround us. I believe our field recording community is packed with talented people who capture clips that will inspire us all.

Earlier this year I decided to put my money where my ideas were. Why not put that concept into practice? So, for the past two months I’ve been writing a book that explains how to do two things:

Build an exceptional indie sound library bundle.

Host that collection on a website you own.

The goal of the book is to help everyone share their creations with fans worldwide and find freedom while doing so.

Have you been recording sound effects for months, or even years? Perhaps your library began with a handful of tracks, then grew with sputtering leaps and collapsed into a jumbled heap of tangled metadata.

In the last article I explored simple ways to touch up metadata. I featured a particular metadata app, Soundminer, and highlighted 10 tools it uses to add, edit, and save metadata.

Today I’ll continue exploring how Soundminer can enhance your collection with metadata. In this post I’ll share a more complex but powerful method: updating your metadata with external files.

It’s more involved than what we learned last post. However, it has great power to fix, transform, and polish vast amounts of metadata simply. Are you a sound librarian? Do you work with a massive collection of sound effects or music? Today’s article is for you.

Sound editors and librarians have a lot of choice for managing their sound fx collections. The last article compared 15 metadata and sound browsing apps. There are apps that read a cascade of metadata from a half-dozen formats. Most save metadata changes to a database. A select few write back to the sound effect itself.

But how does this metadata get there in the first place? Someone has to enter text info for dozens of fields. So, while there are many apps that read and write metadata, there are very few that allow sound librarians to compose it quickly and fluidly. Two apps in particular offer a handful of options to get this done. Library Monkey’s Sound Grinder and Soundminer V4 Pro are able to make bulk changes to sound effects library metadata in seconds.

Are you interested in tweaking your sound clip collection’s metadata? Want more info to help you find accurate results quickly? More metadata will help. This post explains how to enrich your sound library using one specific metadata app: Soundminer.

Sharing a comparison chart contrasting features and prices between apps.

Describing each of these apps, their highlights, and notable differences between them.

Today’s post explores 19 sample organizer apps. There a lot of information here. Scan the app categories and descriptions and explore the facts to help you decide what’s the best sound effect library manager for you.